UCLan graduate makes an impression on London Fashion Week

Sun writer Jakes causes a stir as alter-ego Philippe

A former University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) journalism student who gate-crashed London Men’s Fashion Week for The Sun newspaper caused quite a stir.

Jake Ryan wowed the capital’s stylistas disguised as his alter ego Philippe Arbuckle, a fashion blogger from Accrington.

“In tight red jeans, glittery jacket and armed with the ultimate accessory, a black pug, I unleashed my inner Bruno Gehard, the Austrian style guru created by Sacha Baron Cohen,” said Jake who joined the paper last year after completing UCLan’s postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism

“To be asked to go out and gate-crash the party as a Bruno-type character was pretty daunting, but straight away I knew it would be a great opportunity to have a laugh.

“I think I taught Jake something useful about journalism. Hopefully my dress sense is better than his and he’s assured me his lapse in sartorial elegance was temporary."

“Some of the reactions from the fashionistas and celebrities were priceless. They only spurred me on to become even more outrageous,” said Jake who was accompanied on his jaunt by Nicole and India, two of The Sun’s Page 3 girls.  Unfortunately Monty the pug disgraced himself at Nicole Farhi’s.

“I think I taught Jake something useful about journalism. Hopefully my dress sense is better than his and he’s assured me his lapse in sartorial elegance was temporary,” said Delwyn Swingewood, course leader on the MA postgraduate diploma in Newspaper Journalism at UCLan.

Andy Snell, one of ‘Philippe’s’ UCLan contemporaries and fellow Sun staffer expressed his admiration.

He said: “Watching Jake’s meteoric rise from student reporter at UCLan to global fashion icon has been inspiring. While we may have mocked his tracksuits during his Preston days, it is clear now he was setting trends we mere mortals were unable to appreciate.

He’s clearly got a bright future at The Sun, if he manages to resist the big money that will inevitably come flooding in from the world’s top modelling agencies."

For the full story visit The Sun’s website.